The number of snow crystals that fall from the sky each winter is an estimated 1 septillion (that's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 – which is about a trillion trillion), according to the ...

Rimed crystals can become what we call graupel or soft hail. They from because of the water droplets in a cloud. They form when droplets freeze onto a snow crystal.

In reality, most snow crystals are irregular, he writes. Why spend all this time classifying snowflakes? As Libbrecht explains, this is really the study of how crystals form.

Snow crystals resting on spikelets of a grass. Almost 400 years ago astronomer Johannes Kepler, famous for formulating the geometric laws describing the movements of planets, wondered, "Why is it ...

Graupel might be mistaken for snow and hail. Here’s what to know about these soft, crumbly pellets that form when snow crystals fall into supercooled water droplets.

These snowflake photos were taken by Kenneth Libbrecht of CalTech, using a specially-designed snowflake photomicroscope. They show real snow crystals that fell to earth in northern Ontario, Alaska ...

The old adage that "no two snowflakes are alike" might not hold true, at least for smaller crystals, new research suggests. Snowflakes are created when snow crystals stick together. Some contain ...

Temperatures drop during the night, causing the snow to refreeze. This melt-freeze cycle rounds out the snow crystals, allowing them to bond together more securely than the faceted snow we see in the ...

Snowflakes and snow crystals can grow fairly large, but there are limits The Guinness World Record folks would have us believe in a 19th century snowflake more than a foot wide, ...